Where the Love Light Gleams
by JoBethMegAmy. my homegirls
Summary: Prompt from thepriceisrizzoli: "I have a crush on you and we turned out to be secret santas and oh no you put a lot of effort into your gift and mine is garbage so I better make it up to you after work." Two-shot.
1. Lightning Strikes

**A/N**: Hi, all. Got started on this prompt from thepriceisrizzoli over on tumblr, and it turned into a two-shot. Happy reading!

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Jane liked to fancy herself an interrogation expert. When she had a suspect, she could tell almost right away if a direct or indirect line of questioning was the best way to get the information she needed. Sometimes people were tricky; they seemed open and honest, but that was a front. Or they were open and honest, but you had to be a few steps ahead of them to ensure that you still controlled the situation, that they wouldn't be able to follow your line of reasoning.

All of this flew through Jane's head as she stood in the morgue, watching Maura at her computer.

They had a fairly amiable relationship at this point, on the clock and off. Maura had come to meet Jane and Frost, or Jane and her brothers at the Dirty Robber a few times. More than once, the two women had been the only ones left in their booth by the end of the night, talking and laughing and trying each other's drinks. To borrow a phrase she hated to use, Jane was certain there was "a vibe" between them, but was wary of just diving in the way she normally did when it came to asking a woman out because she didn't want to make things weird at work.

_Indirect line of questioning it is._

But before Jane could so much as figure out a casual way of even concluding whether Maura was attracted to women, she was found out and her unasked inquiry answered.

"Oh!" Maura said, turning at the sound of Jane's footstep. "I'm sorry, have you been waiting long? I got distracted."

"No worries, I'm a little early." They had agreed to meet for lunch. Maura was making no effort to hide her Internet activity, and Jane took a curious glance. "Whatcha lookin' at, _Balto_?"

"No, I'm not familiar with that site," Maura said absent-mindedly, turning back to her screen. "My ex just went to Norway and saw the Northern Lights. Look at these pictures, aren't they beautiful?"

Jane got closer and shook her head in amazement. She'd never seen such vibrant colors in nature, and would have assumed the photos were altered in some way if Maura hadn't gone into explaining the phenomenon of the Aurora Borealis. It was an interesting science lesson, but Jane was also a little distracted trying to see the name of the person who'd sent the email whose attachments Maura was scrolling through.

"Still friends with your ex, that's nice," Jane observed.

"Oh, yes, things ended amicably between us some time ago. She's a photographer for National Geographic, isn't that cool?" (Jane was glad that Maura's gaze was still fixed on the computer, otherwise she might've noticed the barely-repressed grin of relief on Jane's face.) "We used to talk about going somewhere to see the Northern Lights sometime. It's always been a dream of mine to go see them. Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Alaska... I mean, you could even go somewhere as close by as Canada."

"I'm surprised you haven't been, if that's the case."

"Yeah," Maura said, her voice trailing off. She closed out of the email and got her purse, leading the way out of the morgue. "Well, when I was a kid, my parents always wanted to go someplace warm during my school winter breaks, so that never happened. It wasn't until I was older that I realized you can actually see the lights at times of year besides winter, but it's better when the days are shorter and seeing them amidst a snowy landscape was all part of the idea in my head, all part of what it should look like. By the time I was at BCU, I was way too focused on my studies to allow myself the extravagance of taking a trip. I really wanted to give something like that it's due, you know? Not just make a weekend visit out of it, because what if it was foggy and I went to all that trouble for nothing? And then once I grew into my career, I was going on trips with partners who were more interested in going other places, I mean places I wanted to visit, too, and so I sort of forgot about it. I could go myself, I mean, I've traveled other places by myself. But I'd gotten this romantic notion into my head that it would be nice to share a sight like that with someone, even a friend, and it just never came together."

By the time this monologue had ended, they'd already gotten upstairs to the cafe and Jane had shooed a uniformed officer away from her regular table. For having said so much without seeming to take a breath, Maura appeared collected as she took her seat.

"Anyway, I'm sure I'll get there someday. Now, enough about me," she chuckled, again missing the expression on Jane's face which indicated there could never be too much of her. "What childhood dream are you still holding out hope for?"

Angela swooped in with a fresh pot of coffee to answer the question before Jane could. "Oh, don't ask!" she groaned, and Jane immediately put her face in her hands. "It's been years and I still haven't heard the end of it, how we never got her the Lightning TRS, ABT-included, thermo-hydro-whatever rollerblades."

"Thermo-hydro rollerblades?" Maura asked, blinking in confusion.

"If I'm remembering the ad correctly, it was glass-reinforced thermo-_plastic_," Jane sighed. "Adjustable Lightning TRS Rollerblades with active brake technology, aka, ABT. Would have made me the coolest cat on the block circa 1989."

"What did TRS stand for?"

"Thermo...y'know what, that's a good question. I dunno. The point is," she said with an exasperated smile as Angela whisked away to tend to some other customers, "I was an obnoxious kid who didn't really have a full appreciation for, y'know, family finances as they pertained to expensive new toys, or whatever you'd classify rollerblades as."

"Athletic gear?"

"Right," Jane chuckled. "Well, no one was going to college on a roller-blading scholarship. When I got a job later on, I kinda fantasized about buying them myself, but by then my brother was trying to convince me to go in on a used car with him, so I started saving up for that instead. And then I kinda felt like, I dunno, my window for being 'allowed' to enjoy that kind of thing had passed."

Angela had returned with Maura's usual salad and way too much food for Jane. "And yet, every Christmas after that when I've asked what she wanted, she'd still say those darn things. 'Ma, if you just saw the kids in the commercials...'"

"Hey, you ask, and yet you still haven't gotten them!" Jane laughed, then added to Maura, "I never know what to ask for. Not that my track record for having requests filled is so great."

"No kidding!" Angela sniffed. "I'm still waiting for the 'thank you' on that canopy bed."

"Oh God, that thing," Jane said, rolling her eyes. She explained to Maura, who looked adorably intrigued, "I wanted a bed like a fort."

"That bed was like every little girl's softest, fluffiest, princess fantasy," Angela whispered in a reverent tone of voice, as if she was preparing to offer to sell Maura ten of the beds right now with a discounted shipping rate. "Apparently there was a miscommunication about what exactly _this_ princess wanted."

"Your princess was more of a general," Maura observed with a smile, earning a grin from Jane.

Angela sighed affectionately, ruffling Jane's hair. "Sit up straight, general. Oh! All this gift talk reminds me. Have you two signed up for the Secret Santa? The drawing is starting later today."

This was another question Jane had intended to ask Maura, and she tried not to look too eager for a response. "I think the idea of secret gift-giving is a nice one," Maura said. "I've never participated in something like it before, and my techs all sounded excited about it, so I think this will finally be the year that I do it."

"Cool!" Jane blurted out. "Cool, yeah, me too."

In what could only be described as a total plot contrivance, Jane wound up drawing Maura's name. This was what she had been hoping for, but now that she was staring at the slip of paper with Maura's name impeccably written on it, panic started to set in. What could she possibly get this woman? There was a price limit on gifts, gratefully, but even without the pressure of getting something expensive enough for Maura's taste, nothing seemed good enough. Jane decided to let it stew for a day or two, which then turned into several days, which then suddenly turned into most of December as work piled up and every idea she got seemed increasingly stupid.

"Just buy her, like, a really nice pen," Frost suggested in the break room one day. He'd drawn the name of someone in dispatch who hadn't shut up about his Pez collection all month, which Jane thought had been a rather obnoxious tactic of ensuring his Secret Santa got the message, but she envied Frost the easiness of his task. "What do nerds like?"

"She's not a nerd," Jane muttered for what felt like the hundredth time.

Apparently, Frost needed a hundred times to get what was going on. "Wait a second. Are you into Dr. Isles?"

"No shit, Sherlock," Korsak said from the corner of the room, not looking up from his lunch. "How you ever made detective is beyond me."

This set off a brief and very unhelpful argument between Frost and Korsak, and with a sigh, Jane resigned herself to going back to her desk to figure this out alone. Frost had a bad history of romantic gestures, but he was a regular Romeo compared to Korsak—so maybe neither of them were great choices for advice in this area. In time she humbled herself enough to ask her brothers for their input, and they both recommended safe-but-sure classic bets of romance: flowers or chocolates. Frankie remembered someone bringing in a gift basket from a grateful elderly citizen, which had contained fudge that Maura got excited about. Jane had a vague memory of the same occasion, and grasped at the straw.

So, she went scouting for the best Yelp-reviewed chocolate stores in the area. Normally she'd buy a gift bag from a dollar store and be done with it, but she took care ahead of time to find a nice box and tissue paper for it, and it turned into her first arts-and-crafts project since middle school. She remembered seeing Maura store food in a fridge in the morgue before (which had almost sent Frost into vomit-mode), and that inspired her to steal away downstairs during a brief window of time when she knew Maura would be out. Ensuring that the tag with Maura's name on it was prominently displayed, she stuck the box inside the fridge when none of the lab techs were looking.

By the time Jane got back to her desk, a sizable wrapped present was sitting on it.

"Did you see who left it?" she asked Frost.

He just shrugged and smiled. "C'mon, you know I can't say! 'Secret' is in the name of the game."

With no sense of decorum, Jane tore into the package and her mouth fell open. She was vaguely aware of nearby officers cracking jokes about what year it was and retro TV reboots, but ignored them as she marveled at the packaging of the Lighting TRS Rollerblades, black with neon purple wheels and neon green shock absorbers. Jane didn't know if she hoped the skates matched the image on the box or not; the colorful styling hit nostalgic notes she hadn't thought about in a long time but were about as far as you could possibly get from her current color palette of choice. Her teenage self would've rocked the neon, though, and she was surprised to find herself tearing up through her laughter as she opened the box and pulled out the brightly colored skates.

Jane was jarred out of her reverie by her mother's voice: "Oh, she tricked me!"

"Angela!" Frost cut in sharply. "I think you mean, 'he or she or they' tricked you! We don't want to out the gift-giver...!"

Angela rolled her eyes, which gave Jane a moment to brush away the few tears from her own. "Fine. The _person_ who gave you those asked me what your shoe size was. I thought she - they! - were gonna get you some really cute pumps or something! She - he! They ... have such great taste in shoes." With a sigh, Angela promptly left the bullpen muttering about footwear and broken promises.

"Okay, did she come up here just in hopes of seeing me open a box of heels?"

"You gonna put 'em on?" Frost asked.

Jane glanced around to make sure Cavanaugh wasn't in sight. She quickly yanked off one of her boots and tried on one of the skates, just to see if it would fit. It was a little big, but she figured if she wore a couple of layers of socks, that might make up the difference. She only realized there'd been a dopey grin on her face when she heard Korsak snap a picture on his phone.

"Ah, shoot!" he muttered, when Jane glanced up, frowning. "Forgot to turn the sound off."

"What exactly are you planning to do with that picture, old man?"

He stuck his tongue out at her. "Just thought I'd send it to the person who dropped that off, so they'd know how happy they made you."

"There's no need," Jane chuckled, and though Frost insisted it would be faster to rollerblade wherever she was going, Jane put her boot back on. "I'm going to go tell them thanks myself."

"Who told you?!" Frost called after her as she headed for the elevator.

Jane was slightly put out to reach the morgue and see some of the lab techs taking bites of Maura's fudge. Hadn't she clearly marked the intended recipient? She was in the midst of wondering whether she should make a point of bringing that up, when Susie Chang caught her eye. Looking nervous and totally misreading Jane's expression, Susie pushed the box towards her.

"Would you like some?" she asked. "It was Dr. Isles' Secret Santa gift, and she offered it to us."

"Oh," Jane said, trying not to look disappointed. _Maybe I didn't get a flavor she likes. Ugh! That was a stupid gift idea. _"Looks like you guys have made quite a dent, huh?"

"Well, she took some of it," Susie said defensively.

That was something, at least. Shaking her head, Jane thanked Susie for the offer and headed for Maura's office, knocking on the door. Upon being welcomed inside, it brightened her spirits a little to see Maura at her desk with a piece of fudge on a napkin in front of her, as she tied the ribbon from the package around her pen holder. That at least seemed to indicate she liked Jane's decorative taste.

"Hi!" Maura said brightly. "Isn't this ribbon pretty? I thought it would help make my office space a little more festive. It even came with a tiny garland," she said, pointing to the item that she'd laid in front of her monitor.

"That's cute, where'd you get it?" _Jane, you smooth, smooth criminal. _

"My Secret Santa used it for decorating my present," Maura said, smiling. "The gift itself was fudge, which is really delicious but it's generally too rich for me, I'm afraid. I can only have so much of it."

There was a careful line in revealing too much, but Jane thought she could tread that line well enough as she took a seat. "Oh, yeah, it's the same for me. I remember loving it when I was a kid, but I guess maybe my tolerance has gone down the older I've gotten. O'Hara brought in a gift basket a few weeks back, had some fudge in it and I... mean, it was good, but yeah, too much. Too sweet. I thought I remembered you taking some of it?"

Perhaps that was actually crossing the line into obvious territory, but Maura seemed oblivious. "Oh, I remember that. But he kindly allowed me to abscond with the fudge _clusters_, not fudge. The walnuts and granola really help cut the sweetness. They're an indulgence of mine, I admit."

Okay, well, the names were similar so Jane figured she couldn't beat herself up too much over that one. "Ah, gotcha. Speaking of Secret Santas, though, that's why I came down here. Just had to take a minute to thank you for mine."

"Why, I don't know what you're talking about," Maura said with a girlish smile that Jane couldn't help but return. "I know it meant risking identifying myself as your gift-giver, but I just couldn't let go of that idea after you brought it up."

"A bit more than a risk," Jane chuckled. "The only other people here who've heard me go on about those skates are my brother, who didn't participate, and my mother, who outed herself as an advisor on this gift regarding shoe size. She's bitterly disappointed that you didn't get me kitten heels, by the way."

"Oh, gosh. Tell her next time."

The best Jane could offer was another light laugh. "That was sweet, Maura. It was really sweet of you and I'm touched." It was clear that Maura's thoughtfulness wasn't something she got complimented on often; she was beaming and it warmed Jane's heart to make her feel that way. She imagined the only comparable thing that would feel as good would be getting Maura a gift that would make her light up the way the rollerblades had done for Jane. "I'm super jazzed about going for a ride later. I think I might rollderblade my way over to the Dirty Robber after work, you free?"

She wasn't, but Maura did tell Jane to text her when she was leaving so she could see her off. Frankie and Angela were on the steps to watch her depart, too, talking about getting her a helmet or knee-pads for Christmas. Maura offered to be a steadying force as Jane took a minute to readjust to balancing on the rollerblades, and applauded in delight when Jane whisked down the sidewalk. She garnered her fair share of surprised and amused looks as she wended her way to the Dirty Robber, a little wobbly at first, but she knew for the most part that she was seeing her own smile reflected in people who saw her and had a little nostalgia brought back to them, too. Murray gave her a hard time about it, but that couldn't dim her enthusiasm as she made her way to a bar stool.

What did finally bring her down a bit was her disappointment that Maura had gotten her something so specific and memory-driven, and Jane had given her something so generic. Not just generic, but something she didn't even like that much. Jane didn't want to ask outright for a good gift idea, though. Maura hadn't done that; she'd just had lucky timing and a good memory. Instead of attempting to pick an objective great gift as she had done before, Jane tried to think back on every conversation she'd had with Maura to mine it for a good gift idea. This got harder the drunker she became, when all she could remember were Northern lights and garlands. But she couldn't very well buy Maura an airline ticket to Norway, or even Canada.

"Murray, tell me how this sounds for a Christmas present. I change my name to Aurora Borealis, like, legally."

"Is this a Christmas present for yourself or for someone else?" he asked with a straight face. "You know what, it doesn't matter. Either way, it's an absolutely amazing idea."

Jane slapped her hand on the bar. "Done. I will start the paperwork as soon as I get home."

She didn't. And when she woke up the next morning, her mind was still stubbornly blank.

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**A/N**: Thanks for reading, folks! Chapter 2 is already in progress and should be up shortly.


	2. Aurora Borealis

**A/N**: Hey all! Thanks for sticking with me. I kept reworking this, so I hope you'll indulge me in a little post-Christmas cheer :)

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Maura was just putting the final touches on her ensemble when the doorbell rang. She couldn't imagine who might be coming over at this hour, and was surprised to see Jane on her porch. Jane looked just as surprised to see her all dressed up, and Maura wondered if Jane was aware of how obvious she was being in checking her out. Moreover, she wondered if it would be impolite to point out that she noticed and was really into it.

"Hhhey," Jane finally got out. "Wow, sorry. Hi."

"Hello," Maura said, inviting her inside. "What brings you here?"

Jane shut the door, but even though she'd extensively prepped for coming over tonight, she was thrown off by the clear implication that Maura was on her way out. She'd been so busy psyching herself up for this that she hadn't paused to consider that even someone self-described as liking to spend cozy nights at home might be busy on a Thursday evening during the holidays. But Maura didn't seen to mind the unexpected visit; in fact, Jane's spirits were buoyed by the unrestrained joy in Maura's expression as she put on her earrings, patiently waiting for Jane's explanation of her sudden appearance.

"How d'you do that?" Jane found herself asking.

"Do what?" Maura asked, pausing with one hand still clasping her ear.

Suddenly Jane felt parched and she had to clear her throat before going on. "Put those on without a mirror. I got my ears pierced in middle school at my mother's insistence, but I went so long without wearing any earrings that they uh, the holes closed up. I could never put them in without getting as close to a mirror as physically possible. Although," she said with a weary laugh, "I guess I've seen you cut up dead bodies with ease while you're mid-conversation, so maybe my amazement should have a higher bar."

"Oh, it's all about practice and precision in either case," Maura said with a chuckle.

"They're pretty," Jane said. "The earrings, I mean. They really, um, bring out the gold in your eyes. And the green of your dress, it kinda does that, too. With the green in your eyes, I mean."

Geez. She was not usually this flustered when she was trying to flirt. But maybe that was it—she really wasn't trying to be flirtatious, she was just making observations which happened to betray things she found attractive about Maura. Granted that shared some of the basics of flirting, but flirting done with purpose was something Jane was good at and this just felt like it was all tumbling out of her without her control. Word vomit.

Fortunately for Jane, Maura found it charming. She asked, "did you come by just to compliment me?" because she lost the nerve to ask if Jane had come over to hit on her.

"No," Jane said, getting some of her own nerve back. "That just comes natural." Again she was encouraged by the pleased reaction this inspired. "I should have called, but, uh..." _I was so excited about getting to share this with you that I didn't really stop to think._ "I was feeling spontaneous. I was wondering if you might want to grab a coffee or cannoli, or something. But I didn't stop to think that on New Year's Eve's eve, you might be going out on a... a date?"

It was too obvious to even be called fishing, but Maura was still happy to report, "I'm not going on a date."

"Oh!" Jane said, smiling with relief and then immediately trying to play it down. "Ok, that's cool. Where are you off to, then?"

"My mother's got an exhibition opening at the ICA, and there's a reception for it tonight. I'd have planned it after New Year's Eve myself, but I guess they figure they'll be avoiding a conflict of interest the night before anyhow."

"Damn! Wow! That's awesome, I didn't know your mom was an artist. Good for her. She must be pretty good then, huh?"

"She's rather well-renowned in contemporary circles, yes," Maura said. "If you'd come a few minutes later, you might've missed me. I'm glad you didn't."

"Could I give you a ride?" Jane asked, knowing full well that Maura had a beautiful car but desperate to spend even a little time with her if Maura was up for it.

"You could," Maura said slowly, "and I guess I could get a Lyft home."

"Or I could pick you up," Jane suggested. "Whenever you'd be ready."

Maura raised an eyebrow, looking amused. "So you'd drop me off and then just wait around someplace, and pick me up?"

"Um...yeah," Jane said, realizing how sad that sounded as Maura said it.

"Here's a counter-offer," Maura said with a smile that made Jane's stomach flip over. "Would you like to come with me?"

The invitation was as thrilling as it was unexpected. Jane was pretty indifferent to art, but she'd have gone to a convention to watch paint dry if Maura had asked her there. "Wow! Really? I'd love to, if that's okay." She had to assume Maura had the go-ahead to bring someone, so she wasn't really worried about that, but the discrepancy between Maura's chic dress and her own long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans did give her pause. "Is there a dress code?"

Maura gave Jane a very pointed up-and-down look to communicate the fact that Jane's apparent attraction to her was reciprocated. She took a step closer, impulsively reaching out to straighten the hem of Jane's shirt.

"I think you look lovely," she said. "And anyone who passes muster with me will certainly be fine at the ICA."

Jane got the low-down on Maura's mother and a brief primer on contemporary art as they drove over. On their arrival, Jane was somewhat relieved to see that while there were stuffy academic types standing around hobnobbing, there were also small groups of hipster kids who at least made her feel old enough if not educated enough to be there. She went into her best outgoing mode, as there were a number of people Maura was excited to introduce her to, absolutely none of whom could convince Jane that what she was looking at was art.

"Come on," she groaned, nodding at a display of plastic bottles hung like a chandelier. "This is art? This is like an upside-down version of what my walkway looks like on recycling day."

"Ah, but see, you wouldn't think to arrange it as art," explained one fellow patron, who even Maura had to agree was a tad pretentious. "Constance is really making a statement by lending a certain..."

"_Je ne sais quoi_," Maura offered, and the man nodded. Maura tried not to laugh at the expression he missed on Jane's face, which was part total confusion and part total disgust.

When he wandered off shortly afterwards upon seeing a friend, Jane said, "Okay, even _you_ have to admit that guy was full of it."

"Oh, I don't deny that," Maura chuckled, moving on to the next piece. "But I think it would be insufficient to divide the group here into stuffed-up posers and jaded, self-proclaimed outsiders like you. I think I'm somewhere in the middle. Look at this," she said, stopping in front of a mixed-media piece made with popsicle sticks and paint. "My mother had a very nice studio in our home when I was growing up, but I was never allowed inside. She took me to museums, but she never shared her creative process with me. Maybe she was afraid I would mess something up, I don't know. But look at how _free_ this is. How carefree and whimsical, even."

"Or...messy?" Jane said, not able to relate to the awe in Maura's face.

"Messy, yes," she agreed. "But that's the point. In my line of work, we follow the 'cleanliness is next to godliness' rule. I could never be this devil-may-care. I wish I knew how. But I never learned how to be a color-outside-the-lines kind of person. I envy my mother that. I'd love to catch some of that free-wheeling sensation she must get from painting like this."

Jane, having grown up as sloppy as they come, was about to tell Maura it was never too late to learn when the guest of honor herself at last deigned to grace them with her presence. Having heard a bit about their restrained relationship, Jane was still surprised that Constance was greeting her daughter as if she were any other rando at this party. As if sensing her own errant behavior, Constance lightened up a little and said, "I'm so sorry, my dear. I've been trying to make my way over to you since I saw you come in, but I keep getting held up!"

"Oh, don't worry about us," Maura said, with the kind of sincere smile Jane knew she rarely gave her own mother—one that was a bid for approval. "We've been fine."

"I haven't even been able to so much as quench my thirst with all these eager people about."

"Can I get you something to drink?" Maura asked, with the air of someone desperate to impress. "Let me get you something. I'll be right back. Oh—Jane, this is my mother; mother, this is Jane."

With that brief introduction, she hurried off to find the nearest waiter, leaving Jane and Constance alone to size each other up.

"Maura didn't tell me she was bringing a date," Constance said, a smile on her lips but a calculating look in her eyes.

"Oh, uh, that's not what this is," Jane assured her. She instinctively glanced at Maura's retreating figure to make sure she wasn't in earshot. "No, we're just fr... friends. Good friends."

Constance could not be deterred, and raised an eyebrow at Jane's stammer and the longing look in her eye. "Good friends as in you used to sleep with her, or as in you still want to sleep with her?"

Even as the daughter of one of the most direct women on the planet, Jane was floored. She needed a moment to collect herself but didn't want to give Constance the satisfaction of thinking she'd ruffled her. "That seems like a pretty cynical take on an innocent comment."

"Maybe so, but I know a fellow cynic when I see one."

"What you saw was me being a jackass for side-eying a bunch of young people who're just trying to impress each other at an art opening."

_Yes, and I also saw you sizing up my daughter. _"And what are _you_ doing at this art opening?" Constance asked, not in a rude way but nonetheless expressing she found it obvious upon immediate observation that this would not have been Jane's first place of choice for an evening out.

Jane recognized that she was about to answer in a defensive tone, and paused to give herself time to sound calm. "Your daughter asked me to come. That's all it is." Correctly sensing that Constance was the type of woman who would hate the word, she added, "Ma'am."

"Well, how nice of you. Tell me, how is it you and Maura know each other?"

"We work together. In fact, she was my Secret Santa this year and she got me rollerblades. So, that's the tier of friendship we're at, if you wanted me to be more precise."

Constance narrowed her eyes at the sarcasm and avoided commenting on it. "Ah. Fellow doctor?"

"Detective," Jane growled at the slight condescension of Constance's disbelief. "I may be too much of a dumbass to follow forensics or mdoern art, but I like to think I bring a certain... jenay... say... koi to our efforts." Constance looked rather baffled by Jane's butchered attempt at French, so it was perhaps fortunate that Maura reappeared just then with two champagne glasses in hand. "Well, don't those look good!" Jane said. "I think I'll go grab one myself."

"Oh, this one is for you," Maura said, holding one out to her.

"Nah, it's all right, you enjoy that. I'll be right back."

She strutted off in search of the farthest waiter she could find, and Constance and Maura watched her go together. "Your friend is very direct," Constance said, taking a sip of the champagne. "Almost as direct as me."

"Oh dear. What did she say?"

"Nothing. And yet, _everything_," Constance whispered, as if on the verge of unveiling her ultimate artistic discovery. Maura tried not to roll her eyes. Constance's voice lost its lofty essence as she remarked, "She's got a nice ass, too."

"Mother!"

"She said you two work together. Is that all?"

"Yes," Maura sighed, but she knew she couldn't hold up well under her mother's scrutinizing gaze. "For now. I think we might...well, I don't know. I think there's something there."

"She said you got her a pair of rollerblades. What size?"

"Oh, Lord, mother. Please don't—"

"Because you know what the kids are saying these days about big feet."

"I swear to God, if you say big di—"

"_Big dick energy._"

"Okay, you definitely lied about not having had anything to drink tonight."

Constance took another sip. "Maybe a teensy bit, darling." Before they could get into more inappropriate conversation, an employee of the art gallery whisked Constance away to meet with some VIPs and she smiled apologetically at Maura.

"So! Interesting person, your mother," Jane said, walking back a few moments later. She'd been half-finishing a text to Tommy and glanced up to see Maura looking uncomfortable. To be safe, Jane swiftly pivoted away from what she assumed was a tense subject matter. "Sorry for not giving the art its due. You have to understand that with my upbringing, the most art exposure I ever got came from picture books."

"A fine art form," Maura said.

Jane smiled at the sincerity of the remark. "Wanna educate me and show me some more? I promise I won't snark."

Maura thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. "No, I don't think so. There are other things I'd rather be doing to you. With you!" she corrected herself, but not in enough time to keep Jane's eyebrows from shooting up. "With... you. Want to get out of here?"

"God, yes," Jane said right away.

"I need to just ask you something first before I make a complete ass out of myself," Maura said. "When you showed up at my house earlier, I said I wasn't going on a date tonight. If I leave with you right now, will that still be true?"

Jane was surprised by this sudden overt acknowledgement of what was going on, and Maura was in agony for the few seconds it took before Jane broke into a smile. "Well," she said, holding out her hand. "I guess I can't turn down the invitation to make a renowned truth-teller into a liar."

It somehow felt a little too soon and yet also very right to be leaving the venue hand-in-hand. Jane was usually pretty good at rolling with the punches, but she was glad in this case to have a plan in place for where she wanted to take Maura. The doctor got increasingly confused as they headed further into a suburban area, but waited for Jane to share the plan rather than ask.

"So you don't have to tell me how much you spent, but would it be fair for me to guess that you may have gone over the budget on those rollerblades?" Jane asked.

"Oh, shoot," Maura said. "I was so excited about getting you that gift, I forgot. I'm not going to get a reprimand, am I?"

"No," Jane chuckled. "There's no official reprimand, and you're not the first person to over-spend. I'm sorry my gift was so lame in comparison."

"Your...oh! Oh my gosh, you got me that fudge and I was so rude about it! Right to your face!"

"You weren't rude," Jane assured her, sparing her a glance and a smile. "You were really sweet about it, actually, and I kind of like that you didn't know it was from me. That just showed me all the more what a nice person you are. You had some of it, and you shared it rather than throw it away. It was my bad for mis-remembering fudge clusters as fudge. Anyway, all of that is to say, I'm trying again and I hope I do better this time."

"Jane, you didn't have to."

"I know I didn't. I wanted to. You got me something very special, and I wanted to reciprocate. I'm just sorry it's coming so late!"

A short while later, they pulled over by a nice house. "Is this where you live?" Maura asked, following Jane's lead and getting out of the car.

"Nah, this is my folks' place. They've gone out of town for New Year's, and my mother is paranoid about the house looking unoccupied, so I've been staying here for them. I was looking for some firewood and checked the shed, only to find it surprisingly empty."

This did indeed seem surprising, as they'd reached the shed and a wheelbarrow was sitting outside it with an assortment of tools randomly thrown in. A plastic bag sat on top, but a tied knot kept Maura from being able to see what was inside. Jane paused by the bag and seemed to reconsider something. She picked it up and headed for the garage instead.

"You know what wasn't empty? This bad boy."

She opened the garage, whose walls were covered with shelves and had any number of tools leaning against them save for the wall attached to the house. Ratty drop sheets covered in splotches of paint had been laid out on the floor and taped to the empty wall. Large, styrofoam poster boards were also propped against this wall, and some spray paint bottles were lying on the floor.

"Are we tagging your parents' garage?" Maura asked.

Jane kicked the cans aside and opened the plastic bag. "Nope. We're just gonna show you how to color outside the lines a little bit. See if we can't get you some of that 'free-wheeling sensation' you so crave."

Inside the bag were some balloons, a box of push pins, and what appeared to be squeezable water bottles with paint in them. Jane grabbed an apron from one of the shelves, and got a large hoodie for Maura, but then it registered with her that a hoodie wouldn't be sufficient enough to cover what must've been a very expensive dress. Maura seemed to be having this same thought, and Jane went back to the shelf to grab a T-shirt and sweatpants.

"These are clean, I swear," she said. "They're just what I put on whenever I'm doing yard work or helping out around the house here. Even got some tube socks!"

"Should you be wearing them now, then?"

"Oh, nah, I'll be fine. You take those—go ahead into the house, turn left, and there's a bathroom if you want to change in there."

Maura resurfaced a few minutes later, adjusting the drawstring on the sweatpants with the cuffs rolled up several times. Jane glanced up from what she was doing, and from Maura's expression, could tell she was being dared to laugh.

"I think you look cute in my clothes," she said.

That earned her a small laugh as Maura walked over, saying, "I think you look cute in anything." Before Jane could try to top this compliment, Maura asked, "What are you doing?"

Jane was sitting next to a few filled balloons, and had another one secured over the tip of a paint-filled water bottle. "I'm getting our supplies ready," she said. "Come try." She got Maura set up with another one of the water bottles and a balloon. "I got this idea from a totally badass movie that I saw a while ago, which was badass and intense and not in any way a children's movie. Did I mention it was badass?"

"Which one?"

"_The Princess Diaries._"

This unexpected response made Maura burst out laughing, causing the balloon to get dislodged from the bottle, which promptly blurted a glob of paint on her shirt. That only made her laugh harder and got Jane going as well. By the time they finished filling up the balloons, they'd managed to get paint all over the drop sheets and their clothes. The next step was using push pins to secure the balloons to the boards, and once this was accomplished, Jane rushed into the house and came back with a dart board.

She held the board out to Maura and said, "Would you like to make the first throw?"

"At the balloons?" Maura clarified, and Jane nodded. "I don't know; my aim isn't always great when it comes to pitching. Could I just go up and prick one?"

"No!" Jane scoffed, taking one of the darts for herself. "We're painting outside the lines, remember? Take chances! Get messy! Make mistakes! And other things said by badass people!"

She took aim and threw the dart, hitting a balloon and causing the green paint inside to splatter out. Maura was quick to follow her lead, and they were soon both laughing again. The laughter made them often miss their targets, but collecting the darts to try again was far from a chore. For Maura, this was as freeing an exercise as the rollerblading had been for Jane, a similar opportunity to return to a childlike zone of uninhibited fun—a zone she hadn't ever gotten to enjoy much, even as an actual child.

When they'd gotten down to the final balloon, Jane said, "It's all yours. This is your gift, go for it."

"But you're so much better at it than I am."

"It's not a competition, Maura, it's just about having fun. I feel like I finally understand art, now. It's not necessarily the destination, it's the journey, right? Did I get it? Do I pass the modern art class?"

"With flying _colors_," Maura said, following up this statement with an open-mouthed grin.

"Was that a joke?"

Maura's expression turned earnest. "Only if it was funny."

Jane chuckled. "Good one."

Maura picked up a dart and positioned herself slightly in front of Jane. "It's a little late in the game to be asking, but could you show me how you aim?"

Jane couldn't suppress a grin at the open invitation, and stepped up right behind Maura. "You just need to relax a little," she murmured, her hands shifting up Maura's sides to rid them of tension. She then gently manipulated Maura's arm into a better position, explaining as she did so, "Lead with your elbow, and tilt the dart kinda up a bit, there you go. And bring it up to eye level. Okay?"

"So when you say I need to relax, do you mean I should be more... laid back?" Maura asked, leaning back into Jane.

"I dunno how much that'll affect your game, but I kinda like it," Jane said, resting her hands on Maura's hips.

Maura turned her head, bringing their faces very close together. The temptation to kiss Jane was strong, but a stronger and less mature urge inspired by their play overtook her: she reached over and ran her finger down Jane's nose, leaving a streak of hot pink paint. Jane was caught off guard but took it like a champ, chuckling as she gave Maura a gentle push away. She reached down into a small pool of neon blue paint on the drop sheet and came back up to stroke Maura's face.

"Is this how contouring works?" Jane asked.

"It's how flirting works," Maura countered.

A shiver went down Jane's spine that had nothing to do with the cold. "Ooh, man. I was about to say let's get cleaned up and go to phase two of your present, but I'm tempted to scrap it and just..."

Maura's eyes widened and the sultry tone of her voice dropped. "There's a phase two? You did more than organize this?"

The diversion from a kiss might've pained Jane, but she smiled at the enthusiasm in Maura's voice, knowing she'd get another chance soon. "Oh, yeah, this was just an improvisation based on your angsting at the art gallery," Jane said. "My brother works for a painting company, and recently he showed me some glow-in-the-dark paint he'd gotten in to do the trimming in a kid's bedroom or something, and he wanted to use it at his own place. When I texted him, he was watching _The Princess Diaries _with his girlfriend and kid and wasn't really feeling it and that's when I remembered the thing with the balloons, and he did me a solid by coming and dropping off this equipment here. So really, _this _was phase two, I guess, because the other part came first. And my brother also came through to help me with it. The uh, canvas for our new modern masterpieces are leftover from phase one, actually."

It was touching to think of Jane being able to reach out to family for help like this, and it only endeared her all the more to Maura. She tossed the final dart, a perfect throw that led to a satisfying burst of the hot pink. Jane applauded, and Maura gave her a little bow, then remembered, "Oh right. Didn't you say something about the shed?"

Jane was drying off her hands with a rag, and handed it to Maura before leading the way back to the shed. "When I was trying to think of what to get you that was better than fudge, and maybe even better than fudge clusters, I was thinking about the conversation we'd had where you learned about my history with the rollerblades. Like, how it'd come up because we were talking about unfulfilled childhood dreams and you'd mentioned wanting to see the Northern Lights. I didn't know whether you'd rather go to Alaska or Norway or Canada and didn't want to ruin the surprise by asking, so I hope this'll do instead."

She grasped the doorknob, but before opening the shed, held out her free hand for Maura to take. Maura gasped audibly when they stepped inside.

The walls of the shed had been covered with poster board, all propped or taped together to give the appearance of a continuous art project. In this case, a silhouetted mountain range took up the bottom half, while fluorescent spray paint had been used to mimic the northern lights along the top. To try and make it look a little less static, Jane had augmented the scene with an LED projector that bathed the walls and ceiling in a cloudy night sky of stars. She had also hooked up her mother's old iPod to a speaker, where it played not songs but the sound of a brisk winter wind.

Although Jane and her brothers had tested the full effect the previous night, she had worried it might seem juvenile to someone else, especially a someone else as sophisticated as Maura. The art exhibit hadn't done much to quell this concern, but Jane was grateful she'd given it a try anyway in light of Maura's reaction. She was speechless, gaping as she drank in every detail.

"The projector has two discs you can swap out," Jane said, the silence making her anxious even though she knew Maura was impressed. "The other disc actually has the Northern Lights on it, so I was just gonna get you that but I dunno, I just got this vision in my head when Tommy—my brother—was telling me about the glow-in-the-dark paint."

"_You_ did this?" Maura asked hoarsely, her back to Jane as she was still slowly pivoting on the spot.

Her first reaction was to want to take credit for everything, but after all his help, it felt wrong to exclude Tommy. "Partly, yeah. My brother did the mountainscape, but I did the spray-painting of the lights. Your ex's issue hasn't come out in National Geographic yet, I noticed, but I did some googling to get an idea."

Maura had made it all the way back around so that she was facing Jane, and laughed at the bright pink stripe that was now glowing on her nose. "This is without question the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. It's beautiful. And I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to insist on dismantling it later so I can transport it to my meditation room at home because I know it will give that room the perfect ambiance."

"Wow, really?" Jane asked, pleased that Maura would deem anything she'd done as good enough to display in her own house. "In that case, I guess there's only one thing that could make this all even better."

By way of response, Maura slipped her arms around Jane's neck. "I hope this is what you meant."

Her eyes were still adjusting to the dark, preventing Maura from jumping in as voraciously as she'd like to, but the pink on Jane's nose almost worked like a guidepost to her lips. The kiss was soft, but it swept through Jane, right to her bones. Maura broke it off, nuzzling Jane's nose as she repositioned herself just slightly, and Jane's arms wrapped around her before Jane initiated another, deeper kiss.

This hadn't been her plan, but it was too perfect to protest: Jane's comment had actually been about a box of fudge clusters she had planted on a nearby shelf, but she decided those could wait.


End file.
